About

A World of Danger and Mystery

Enter
the world of Wicked Crush, where a centuries-spanning war between
humans and beastmen dictates life. But in the isolated beastmen town
of Rosachelia, where you (as either a dude or a chick) fall from the
sky, it's the almighty dollar that reigns.

The
town's entire economy revolves around profiting from the lives of
adventurers foolish enough to enter Dynidar, the seemingly endless,
constantly changing dungeon that borders the town. The townspeople
provide the sales of items, services in forging equipment and even
renovate the dungeon to make it deadlier. Despite this seemingly grim
lifestyle, the townsfolk are actually quite friendly. Sharing a
common interest in getting that paper, you are quickly welcomed among
the Rosachelian people. It is then that you decide to be the first to
reach the bottom depths of Dynidar and discover the endless riches
and dark secrets that await.

All screenshots contain placeholder assets and are subject to change.

About the Game

Wicked
Crush is a PC game designed around the concept of an online game
where you play alone, but everything you do has a direct effect on
other players.

Taking
inspiration from classic action games like Castlevania and Mega Man,
along with modern games like Demon's Souls, Little Big Planet,
Persona 4 and Ys, the game promises to meld the responsive controls
and compact movesets of old with unique online functionality,
player-generated content, and beautiful, high definition,
frame-by-frame 2D animation.

The
player's ultimate goal is to reach the deepest levels of Dynidar,
each floor is actually made by another player pulled from an online
server. If you complete the floor without dying, you will find gold
or valuables at the end, and the creator of the floor will receive a
small amount of gold. However, if you die, the floor's creator earns
a much larger sum. What this ultimately means is that players are
rewarded for making crafty levels that rake in the deaths (Check the FAQ for more balance detail).

This
use of player-generated content creates the unique challenge to
giving the game a fair learning curve, slowly increasing difficulty
while adding mechanics, and ensuring that the aesthetics remain
cohesive. This is being achieved by grouping floors together into
“tiers”, each of which has a specific amount and types of enemies
and traps that may be employed, combined with a constantly updating
ratio of successful and failed runs to determine how easy or
difficult a floor is, where in Dynidar it should be placed, and how
big the payout for completing it should be.

Between
dungeon runs, the player will return to the town of Rosachelia. In
town, players can rest, talk to the townsfolk, purchase items (such
as potions, temporary strength supplements, and signs to leave behind
for other players), upgrade their equipment, and build floors for
Dynidar.

The
current dungeon editor is very fast and powerful, but is not yet easy
enough to use to my satisfaction. I am currently working on a new
editor that can be controlled with either keyboard+mouse or a
gamepad, and will be as intuitive and easy to use as Kid Pix, by
procedurally generating the level's aesthetics to the player's
design.

Those
who would prefer to not interact with others need not worry. There
will be at least 100 floors
included with the final game to ensure a full game experience
with or without an internet connection.

Music and Sound

Because
Wicked Crush has such a varied structure, the game aims to have a
varied soundtrack to match. The game's music is being composed by
different musicians with different backgrounds, to suit the different
modes of play, whether it's building, fighting or decompressing. We
hope for the game to have a soundtrack that's unique in style from
other games.

Sound
effects are also incredibly important to providing a rich experience,
so we're taking sound design very seriously, and making sure that
what you hear brings you deeper into the game world. We intend to
mostly use sounds from Freesound.

Back of the Box Bullshit

Beautiful
art that won't melt your eyes.

Music
that doesn't make your ears bleed.

Gameplay
mechanics inspired by punishing-but-fair platformers of the 90s.

Our Team

Billy
Monks (Me) – I am the game's Designer and Programmer. I love making
games and want to make games until I die.

Ryan
Miller – Ryan, known online as rtil, is a multifaceted digital artist, animator, videographer and designer with a BFA in Production Animation from Digipen and over 5 years of industry experience, including work on the multiplatform title Skullgirls. He is working on all aspects of the game's
Art and Animation. Rumored to carry a manpurse. (?)

Kevin
Studevant – Known online as SHADOWFOX2, Kevin specializes in upbeat
electronic and hip-hop music. His music has been featured in many
games and animations. (All of the lovely music in the trailer has been graciously prepared by Kevin)

TJ
Turqman – An incredible bassist and Jazz musician who can be found
working on the popular U Street in D.C.. TJ is providing high quality
recordings for the game, featuring some of the other local artists he
works with.

StrawberryCreme26 – Known for mixing and producing the Hiimdaisy Persona 4 comic dubs, she is providing the game's voice direction, as well as sound mixing.

GeneralIvan
– A popular and talented voice actor, Ivan is best known on Youtube
and Tumblr. As well as with lending his vocal talents, he is working
on filling out the game's dialog and lore.

Concept art of the Liluma, Cerati and Avian races.

What's
the Kickstarter For?

The
money we (fingers crossed) receive from this Kickstarter will let us
work full-time on all aspects of the game, particularly on the art
assets, music and programming, as well as pay for server fees to keep
the online functionality running.

Any
extra funding will give us extra time and resources, which will go
directly toward the game, allowing us to provide a fuller experience
with local co-op, more environments, more enemies, more traps, more
character customization, and more items.

Shortly
after the game is finished, I plan to work on Mac and Linux
conversions, provided people are interested. Adding other languages
to the game is also a possibility, but getting the game done in
English is the team's priority for now.

I
will run a blog for the game, and make sure it's updated at least
once a week so that backers can see how the game is progressing and
provide feedback, as well as get an inside look at the development
team's gradual slip into insanity. I will also be very accessible
through my twitter.

Finally,
in order to test the server and network, we will put out a beta test
some time in 2012. This test will be exclusive to backers, and any
well-designed levels made in the beta will be likely to make it into
the full game as an offline level (with your name attached, of
course).

5% of the game's profits will go toward supporting other promising Kickstarter projects, as part of the Kicking It Forward movement. http://kickingitforward.org

We
are incredibly psyched to make the game, but we really need your help
to make our dream a reality. Thank you for your support.

Note: Screens and videos contain placeholder assets. Level texture placeholders and explosions by ZekeySpaceyLizard, enemy placeholders by lenkobiscuit, bird placeholders by Fearn Sobers. If this is funded, all art will be done by Ryan Miller.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Above rewards + You get a handwritten letter of appreciation from Billy -- UPDATE: Your name (or a name of your choosing) and likeness will appear in a special area of the game, 'Shrine of the First Gods'.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

All above rewards + Know that you have single-handedly saved gaming. Your name and/or logo appear in the splash screen. Also a meal of your choice with the developers, either cooked or purchased by the developers.